There is a need for a practical and reliable carrier device to facilitate the evacuation of non-ambulatory persons from multistoried buildings during emergencies, such as fires, bombings, and other instances where elevators are inoperative or cannot be utilized. For example, Government Services Administration regulations and Maryland law forbid the use of elevators to evacuate people during fires unless they have been approved by fire department personnel on the scene. Therefore, it would be highly advantageous to have available means providing the capability of evacuating physically handicapped persons down stairways without exerting the heavy physical effort required to pick up and carry them out.
There do not appear to be available in the prior art any devices to enable a handicapped person or invalid to be safely and conveniently transported down stairways without the use of equipment requiring the person to be lifted bodily and to be conveyed by supporting the total weight of the handicapped person, for example, by employing a stretcher, or similar device requiring the total weight to be supported by two assisting individuals, one at each end, and requiring strenuous effort on the part of said assisting individuals.
A preliminary search reveals the following prior U.S. Pat. Nos., which appear to represent the closest prior art: Klever, 1,702,010; Smith, 2,281,209; Lackey, 2,438,059; Daniel, 3,386,111; Ingemansson, 3,495,869; Davis et al., 4,010,499.